19 November 2016

Kayser Bondor, Portslade

The firm that eventually became internationally known as
Kayser Bondor was incorporated on 17 April 1928; in the early days it was
called the Full Fashioned Hosiery Company. Production started in 1928 at
Baldock, Hampshire.

In 1931 the Board was re-organised and John Goodenday
became managing director.

In 1937 a new company, Kayser Bondor, was formed. Although
the firm had started producing underwear in 1935, it still specialised mainly
in stockings or hosiery as the term was in those days.

Second World War

The Second World War led to the Kayser Bondor factories in
Baldock and Biggleswade being requisitioned for the war effort. But this did
not cause the demise of the business because production continued in a
converted cowshed.

After the war ended, Kayser Bondor became the first firm
in Britain to produce and sell 15-denier stockings in nylon mesh.

Portslade became part of the Kayser Bondor family by a
happy coincidence. John Goodenday came to Hove in 1949 to visit his mother.
While he was there he heard about the desperate need for light industry in the
south and lost no time in contacting Brighton Labour Exchange to see if they
could come up with 200 young ladies that he could employ as machinists. He also
needed to know if suitable factory space could be found. Amazingly enough
within the course of just four days a building in Portslade was acquired for
the purpose.

The Portslade factory was such a success that Kayser
Bondor decided to open a new factory in Southwick in 1951.

Then Kayser Bondor decided to invest in an entirely new
factory at Portslade. By then the company had acquired the whole site; the old
school premises were demolished and a new factory built.

By 1957 Kayser Bondor was still entirely British-owned but
there was close co-operation with the Julius Kayser Company of America.

When John Goodenday, chairman of Kayser Bondor, celebrated
his 60th birthday, Nigel Woodhouse, general manager of the Portslade
factory, presented him with his portrait in oils painted by Sir James Gunn. Sir
James had painted a memorable full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth II
wearing her coronation robes.

On 9 October 1957 the world-famous ballerina Alicia
Markova (1910-2004) officially opened the new factory. Despite her exotic name
she was an English girl, born in London. It is fascinating to recall that as a
youngster she was sent to ballet classes to help strengthen weak limbs but
subsequently went on to achieve the rare distinction of being recognised as a prima
ballerina assoluta. After the great Diaghilev spotted her talent, she
joined his Ballet Russes shortly after her 14th birthday. She and
Sussex-born Anton Dolin founded the Festival Ballet in 1952.

The new factory covered 38,000 square feet. It was an
ultra-modern design with an enormous amount of glass, which provided wonderful
natural light to aid the work of the machinists.

When fully staffed the Portslade factory would employ 650
people, which was a huge rise in numbers from the 50 employees who started off
there after the war.

The Press went to town in their descriptions of the
building, calling it the Palace of Venus or a Glass Palace of Industry.

In the canteen the artist Basil Armstrong of Poynter Road,
Hove, painted an impressive 80-foot mural. He chose to illustrate the Lanes at
Brighton in the present day but with a background of figures wearing Regency
dress. The canteen was large enough to cater for 200 staff at a single sitting.

By 1957 the combined output of the Portslade and Southwick
factories was 50,000 bras and foundation garments a week.

By 1960 the Sussex output was 84,000 garments a week.

Another Kayser Bondor factory was built at Worthing in the
early 1960s. It too produced foundation garments like its sister factories in
Portslade and Southwick.

New employees had to take a three-part aptitude test,
followed by six weeks in the factory training school.

Advert courtesy of the National Library of Australia (see citation below in 'sources')

Products and Shops

Kayser Bondor had a string of its own shops throughout the
country in the early 1960s. There were nearly 200 of them specialising in
hosiery and underwear. The company also had concessions with large department
stores. In fact at one time the company was one of the main suppliers of
undergarments to Marks & Spencers.

The company produced slips, panties, briefs, nightdresses,
pyjamas, bras and suspender belts but gloves were a recent innovation.

Kayser Bondor employed 4,000 people and other factories
were at the following locations:

Baldrock

Biggleswade

Dowlais

Pentrebach

St Neotts

There was also a weaving mill in Cumberland.

A Bra Out Front

Portslade-by-sea was so often seen as a hotbed of heavy
industry such as the Gas Works and the docks at Shoreham Harbour that it comes
as a surprise to remember that there was once a creative centre for female
fashion in undergarments.

At Kayser Bondor, Portslade, there was a dedicated team
whose task it was to dream up new designs and lines for production. In fact,
all the designing was done at Portslade by 1968.

A design known simply as ‘style 100’ was a plain, cotton
bra but it was first manufactured at Portslade. One of the most popular designs
featured a half-cup of broiderie anglais and was called romantically ‘young
star’ but more prosaically ‘style 177’.

Advert courtesy of the National Library of Australia (see citation below in 'sources')

Social Life

The management of Kayser Bondor at Portslade took pride in
providing their staff with social facilities and a sports club. There was
certainly a precedent for this in the example of the famous Ronuk factory at
Portslade.

In 1958 Kayser Bondor even went so far as to sponsor the
Kayser Bondor Womens’ National Golf Tornament.

Staff with a social conscience could join the Tupenny
Club. Two pence from their weekly wage was placed into the kitty and at
Christmas time the accumulated fund was used to give donations to local widows
and pensioners. Tickets for a pantomime visit were also provided for the girls
of Brighton & Hove Girls’ Orphanage.

In the 1950s and 1960s the management used to put on a
Christmas party for its employees at Hove Town Hall.

The majority of staff at the factory was female. There was
almost a family feel about the place because there were examples of daughters,
sisters, mothers or aunts employed there at the same time.

Staff

Pam Slade was the quality manager and was with the company
for 29 years. Marion O’Brien started off as a machinist 32 years previously and
worked her way up to become production manager of the factory floor overseeing
the work of 146 machinists. The two women remembered the styles popular in the
early days when there were only two colours for bras, white or peach, and the
cups were much more pointed. By 1984 bras were produced in ten different
colours but each one could take up to 30 different stages to complete.

End of the Road

Textile giants Courtaulds took over control of Kayser
Bondor in 1966.

Kayser Bondor was still heavily involved with large
department stores and with Marks & Spencers in particular. Perhaps it was a
case of putting too many eggs in one basket. When the management of Marks &
Spencers decided to ditch its patriotic policy of buying British-made goods, it
was the death knell for Kayser Bondor. No British company could hope to compete
with the marked-down costs of garments produced in overseas sweatshops.

In 1972 the Southwick factory closed and the last Kayser
Bondor factory closed its doors in 1978.